This was my favourite show of the season, too, in spite of some clunkers, some re-visited plot points, and some very unlikely situations (yeah, glad that Mike’s mom is now on board, but wasn’t that a bit too easy?). They are trying to do an awful lot with this show, though - there are like a billion different plots going on at once.
I did like Kurt zigging when everyone expects him to zag, though.
I too think this episode was one of the best ones, if not the best of the entire show. Fix You at the end sold it for me, although Shuester should never sing so high again. He could barely reach.
No. My own personal opinion is that they are just comparing Mercedes to Effie from Dreamgirls and the song fits if you remove the part about Effie being knocked up. Mercedes/Effie is pissed that the skinny bitch who can’t sing as well as she can is getting all the attention. Mercedes isn’t pregnant or “feeling ill” it was just integral to the plot that she express her alienation through song.
I’m not saying parents like the Changs don’t exist, as all stereotypes do, but it’s such a cliche. If Mercedes was portrayed as being the daughter of a single mother who’s on welfare and lives in the projects (instead of the daughter of a dentist) or if Rachael’s parents were a yarmulke wearing guy who talked like Joey Bishop and an ice queen who wears a fur coat and diamonds and complains all the time people would get upset (instead of two gay men and a vocal coach) and Kurt had an overbearing mother and a father who rejected him they’d catch hell. I suppose it’s because driving kids to succeed is seen as a positive stereotype within reason.
Emma’s parents were much more enjoyable: easily hateable but for quirky and original reasons. And I’ve loved Valerie Mahaffey since she was Eve on Northern Exposure; she plays a great nutjob.
This was a great episode. I agree with everyone who said it felt like one of the better episodes from season one.
It had interesting emotional conflicts and songs that related to the conflicts. That’s something I haven’t seen from Glee in a long time.
Ah! I’ve never seen Dreamgirls. May I then assume that the song where she was in purple and everyone was very well dressed is from that musical?
“And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going”? Yeah, straight from Dreamgirls – including the line sung by Mike Chang, which is delivered by Effie’s replacement in the movie.
I was about to say that it would be difficult to create a musical number around an abortion, but now that I think of it there were actually several big hits in the late '90s about abortion: Ben Folds Five’s “Brick”, Everlast’s “What It’s Like”, and arguably The Verve Pipe’s “The Freshmen”. Wikipedia tells me there was also a song about abortion that was a hit in Australia in the late '70s…and the title of it is “Choirgirl”. So that’s probably the one Glee would go with if there ever is an abortion episode.
Speaking of pushing the envelope, elsewhere on the Web I’ve seen rumors that the title of the episode after next will be "The First Time"and that it will be about Kurt losing his virginity. Presumably to Blaine, although it’s possible Puck or Mike or some other friend will take one for the team when it’s revealed that Blaine subsists on the lifeblood of virgin boys and Kurt is in line to be his next meal.
Sorry for double posting, but I figured it was better to have the possible spoilers (above) in a separate post.
What kept me from going :rolleyes: at this storyline was that Mrs. Chang was immediately supportive of Mike’s dream. If she’d been a Tiger Mother who had to be convinced to change her mind then that would have been too much.
Not that the whole t-shirt thing in “Born This Way” made much sense anyway, but in retrospect it seems odd that the daughter of ginger supremacists would choose being a redhead as the trait she was formerly ashamed of but was now choosing to embrace. I’ll fanwank this by imagining that Emma’s parents’ zealotry backfired and made her embarrassed to be a redhead, and that she actually did have to overcome serious shame and guilt about her hair color. I like this explanation as it makes Will “Butt Chin” Schuster even more of a jerk in that episode.
I’m a bit surprised at the support for Mercedes here. Frankly, I thought she was a stone-cold bitch in this episode. First, she’s not really the right type for Maria (Anita’s little sister? Seriously?). Then, all we see is a big sing-off … we have no idea if either Mercedes or Rachel can actually, you know, ACT. And much of the stuff Mercedes was griping about, being mistreated and all, was really self-inflicted. I mean, come on … the school was bending over backwards, adding an entire extra week of the show so she could play Maria for a week, and she turned it down in a righteous huff?
After she’d been bitching at Shue and everybody else in the building about how awful she’d been treated, would anybody want to cast her in a lead and have to work with her on a show? Everybody complains about Rachel’s diva-ness … the way Mercedes was acting this week, she’d put that to shame.
I agree, and I think that was intentional. Mercedes, right or wrong, feels like Rachel has become the default star of New Directions just because she’s Rachel. Rachel whined and complained and bitched and moaned to be the star for a season and a half, and one could easily argue that that’s why she is the star. In Mercedes’s mind, why shouldn’t she do the same? She’s frustrated and angry. She doesn’t understand why talent alone doesn’t equate to stardom.
Is this a mature attitude? No, but these are kids. Mercedes is in the middle of a character arc. If the writers pull it off right (and they’re pretty hit-and-miss with these kinds of things), Mercedes will end up learning her lesson. What I hope to see is Rachel reaching out to make amends, because, as I said, she is far from blameless when it comes to hogging the spotlight. I’d also like to see evidence of how much Rachel has grown in two seasons.
I forgive this episode for retreading old ground because it did it so much better than in previous episodes, especially “A Night of Neglect,” which was extremely disrespectful to the character of Mercedes. Mercedes is not put in the best light in “Asian F,” but she is true to herself at the very least.
I liked this episode. I could have done without the Mercedes and Rachel thing. I’m happy Mike had a story. And I’m glad Brittney got to dance. Those two are amazing.
My wife and I actually got into an argument over whether Rachel or Mercedes deserved the part. She said Mercedes because Rachel gets everything. I said Rachel because Rachel’s the better singer.
The Kurt/Blaine scene is one that I think most gays who’ve been in a relationship can relate to: that wanting to kiss/hug or otherwise innocent PDA but having to look over the shoulder and then ultimately deciding as much as you’d like to it’s not worth the risk.
However, within the show it’s established that Mercedes knocked it out of the park, even Rachel admitted she didn’t do as well. The trio that was doing the casting liked Rachel, and assumed she’d be the choice, then were wowed by Mercedes’ audition.
I can pretty easily see Mercedes’ point that they didn’t extend the week for her benefit, but to prevent the fallout from not selecting Rachel.
IIRC, Maria is Bernardo’s little sister, and Anita is Bernardo’s girlfriend.
Oops. I knew she was somebody’s little sister. Now they’re going to have to pull my musical theatre membership card.
Maybe to get it back, I could point out that Mike Chang’s casting as Riff wouldn’t have to affect his studies. Riff gets iced at the end of Act I … so Mike can spend all of Act II studying his chemistry. Mike gets to sing and dance onstage … his parents still get the grades. Win win!
Bieste should have been Officer Krupke. I didn’t understand the laughter when Kurt played Romeo but he’d get laughed off the stage playing a racist cop.
The laughter was because he was trying to show he can play butch too, but, um, no he can’t.
Was Kurt cast as Officer Krupke? All I could see of the cast list was Tony/Blaine, Maria/Rachel, Riff/Mike, and Anita/Santana*. If so, ouch. That’s not even a singing role, is it?
I can’t stop thinking that the part Kurt would be best suited for is probably Anybodys, but it would have been cruel to cast him in that role unless he actually said he wanted it.
*ETA: I feel sort of cheated we didn’t get to see Santana’s audition. I hope we’ll see her as Anita in a rehearsal/performance scene in an upcoming episode.
Whenever watching or referencing West Side Story I remember Whoopi Goldberg’s criticism of it: “This guy walks into Spanish Harlem singing out for ‘Maria’ and only one girl answers?!”